How the Town Council is funded

Local Councils are funded primarily from Council tax contributions made by Local Residents. They also at present receive a grant from Durham County Council under the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme (which was implemented when Council Tax benefit was abolished in 2012 to make up the shortfall in revenue). The size of the grant from Durham County Council is reducing over time and must be expected to disappear completely in the future. The Town Council receives no contributions from Business Rates.

The Parish Precept

The name given to the Council tax which is collected for the Town Council is the ‘precept’. The Town Council calculates it’s budgetary requirement in January each year and issues a ‘demand’ (this is a legal term, it’s not an actual demand) to the County Council to collect the required amount of Council Tax from residents to raise the required budget.

How is the precept calculated?

In December each year, the County Council advises each Town and Parish Council what their ‘tax base’ is. The tax base is a gure that is calculated by taking the total number of properties in the area which are liable to pay Council tax and converting them to a number of ‘Band D’ equivalents. This is done using
a formula which expresses each band in ninths. For example,
a Band A property is 6/9 of a Band D, a Band D property is 9/9 and a band H property is 18/9.

Budget 2014-15

Budget 2015-16

Budget 2016-17

Budget 2017-18

Budget 2018-19

Budget 2019-20

Budget 2020-21

Budget 2021-22